Toggle tie plate rail fastening system

ABSTRACT

A toggle tie plate rail fastening system is described for securing rails to wood cross-ties. A wear plate is secured to the upper surface of each of the cross-ties adjacent each end thereof. Each of the wear plates has a plurality of tubular toggles secured thereto which extend downwardly therefrom and which are received by openings formed in the cross-tie. A tie plate is positioned on each of the wear plates and has a rail supported thereon held thereto by a pair of hold-down plates. Bolt members extend downwardly through the hold-down plates and the tie plates and are received by the toggle members. Tightening of the bolts causes the toggles to compress and to move in to gripping engagement with the cross-tie.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation application of application Ser. No. 22,113, filed3/05/87, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,869.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the construction of railroad tracks, wood cross-ties are positionedon the roadbed and normally have a pair of spaced-apart tie platesmounted on the upper surface thereof which supports the rails. Normally,spikes are driven downwardly through openings formed in the tie plateinto the cross-tie to maintain the tie plate thereon. Additionally,spikes are normally driven through openings formed in the tie platedownwardly into the cross-tie with the head of the spike engaging aportion of the rail to hold the rail on the tie plate. However, insevere service application, the spikes tend to loosen.

It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide animproved rail fastening system for severe service application.

A further object of the invention is to provide a toggle tie plate railfastening system for severe service application.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a rail fasteningsystem which not only includes means for securing a tie plate to a woodcross-tie but which also includes means for securing the rails to thetie plate.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one of the tubular toggles which isemployed with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of one of the rail hold-downs employed withthis invention;

FIG. 3 is a plan view illustrating the rail fastening system of thisinvention being employed to secure rails to ties;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view as seen on lines 4--4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged partial sectional view as seen on lines 5--5 ofFIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a partial top plan view illustrating the rail fastening systembeing used to maintain a rail on a wood tie; and

FIG. 7 is a sectional view illustrating the rail fastening system ofthis invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A toggle tie plate rail fastening system is provided for securing therails to wood cross-ties. A wear plate is positioned on the uppersurface of each of the cross-ties adjacent each end thereof. The wearplate has several hundred teeth extending downwardly therefrom which areembedded in the tie to bond the wear plate to the tie. Each of the wearplates has a plurality of tubular toggles secured thereto which extenddownwardly therefrom and which are received by openings formed in thecross-tie. Each of the tubular toggles has an internally threadedportion at its lower end adapted to threadably receive a bolt member. Atie plate is positioned on the wear plate and bolt members extenddownwardly through openings in the tie plate for threadable attachmentto the internally threaded portion on the toggles. Tightening of thebolt members causes the tubular toggles to expand outwardly intoanchoring engagement with the cross-tie. A pair of rail hold-downs arepositioned on opposite sides of each of the rails and have bolt membersextending downwardly therethrough which are also threadably received bytubular toggles.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In the drawings, the numeral 10 refers to a wooden cross-tie havingopposite ends 12 and 14, and upper surface 16. It is recommended thateach end of the tie 10 be end plated by means of an end plate 16,although the end plates do not form an integral part of the invention.

The numeral 18 refers to a wear plate having a plurality of spaced-apartteeth 20 extending downwardly therefrom. A wear plate 18 is secured tocross-tie 10 inwardly of each of the ends thereof. Each of the wearplates 18 acts as a barrier support surface plate and requires in excessof 25,000 pounds pressure to seat the approximately 360 teeth 20 intothe tie 10. This means there is required at least 25,000 pounds pressureor force to push the wear plate deeper into the tie 10 from the wheelloading of the cars passing thereover thus providing a steel barriersupport surface on top of the tie. Such is advantageous for prolongingthe service life of the wood cross-tie as it prevents "plate kill" fromthe common tie plate as it is normally used when spiked directly to thetie. Rail vibration, out-of-round wheels and heavy loading of boxcarscause the tie plate to wear down into the tie thus creating the "platekill". Each of the wear plates 18 shown herein has eight tubular togglemembers 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34 and 36 secured thereto and extendingdownwardly therefrom which register with openings formed in the wearplate. In some situations, only six toggle members will be employed as,for example, when the tie plate only has six openings formed therein.Inasmuch as each of the toggle members are identical, only toggle member22 will be described in detail.

The upper ends of each of the toggle members are welded to the undersideof the wear plate 18 and are provided with an internally threadedportion or nut 38 at the lower end thereof adapted to threadably receivea bolt member as will be described in more detail hereinafter. Each ofthe toggle members is preferably provided with three sets of openings orslots 39 with pairs of openings 39 defining expansion portions or teeth40 which are adapted to move outwardly into anchoring engagement withthe cross-tie when the bolt associated with the tubular toggle membersis tightened. As seen in FIG. 1, each of the openings 39 has a pair ofsemicircular portions 41 and 43 which defined the teeth 40.

The cross-tie 10 is provided with eight openings (six in some cases)referred to generally by the reference numeral 42 which are adapted toreceive the toggle members 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34 and 36.

The numeral 44 refers to a tie plate having eight openings (six in somecases) formed therein which register with the toggle members 22, 24, 26,28, 30, 32, 34 and 36 respectively. Tie plate 44 is provided with acentral recessed area 46 adapted to receive the lower end of rail 48.Rail 48 is secured to tie plate 44 by a pair of rail hold-down members50 and 52. Inasmuch as members 50 and 52 are identical, except forlength, only member 50 will be described in detail. Hold-down member 50includes a substantially horizontally disposed upper portion 54 havingan outer end portion 56 which extends downwardly therefrom as seen inthe drawings. A pair of steel tips 58 and 60 are embedded in thehold-down member 50 adjacent the inner end thereof and are adapted toengage the rail as seen in the drawings. Bolt members 62 and 64 extenddownwardly through openings 66 and 68 formed in hold-down member 50,through openings formed in tie plate 44, through openings in wear plate18 and into toggle members 26 and 28. The lower ends of bolt members 62and 64 are threadably received by the internally threaded portions 38 inthe associated toggle members and tightening thereof causes the togglemember to compress and to expand into anchoring engagement with thecross-tie 10 as seen in the drawings. Tightening of the bolt members 62and 64 not only secures the rail to the tie plate but secures the railand tie plate to the cross-tie.

Bolt members 70 and 72 are extended downwardly through openings in tieplate 40 and are received by the toggle members 22 and 24 respectively.Tightening of bolt members 70 and 72 causes the toggle members 22 and 24to compress and to move outwardly into anchoring engagement with thecross-tie. Bolt members 74 and 76 extend downwardly through hold-downmember 52, through tie plate 44, through wear plate 18 and are receivedby the toggle members 34 and 36 respectively. Bolt members 78 and 80extend downwardly through tie plate 44, through wear plate 18 and arereceived by the toggle members 30 and 32 respectively. Tightening of thevarious bolt members in their respective toggles causes the teeth 40 ofthe toggles to move into gripping engagement with the tie as illustratedin FIG. 7. The rail fastening system of this invention provides aconvenient means for securing a tie plate and rail to a wood cross-tiewhich ensures that the rail and tie plate will not become loose duringsevere service.

Although the rail fastening system described herein has been shown toutilized eight toggle members, many tie plates utilize six openings andin those situations, six toggles would be employed as previouslymentioned. In some situations, it may not be necessary to employ six oreight toggle members although it is preferred that the number of togglemembers correspond to the number of openings in the tie plate. Forexample, a pair of toggle members could secure the wear plate to the tiewith some other type of connection being employed to secure the tieplate to the tie. It can therefore be seen that a novel rail fasteningsystem has been provided which ensures that the rail and tie plate willbe positively anchored to the cross-tie and will not loosen duringsevere service. It can therefore be seen that the invention accomplishesat least all of its stated objectives.

I claim:
 1. In combination,an elongated, substantially horizontallydisposed wood cross tie having opposite ends, a horizontally disposedwear plate mounted on the upper surface of said cross tie adjacent eachend thereof, each of said wear plates being bonded to the tie by meansof a plurality of teeth extending downwardly therefrom which areembedded in the tie, said teeth being positioned uniformly acrosssubstantially the entire underside of said wear plate, said plurality ofteeth being great enough in number so as to require at least about25,000 pounds of force to bond the wear plate to the tie, said cross tiehaving a plurality of vertically disposed openings formed thereinbeneath each of said wear plates, each of said wear plates having aplurality of openings formed therein which register with the openings insaid tie, said wear plate having a plurality of tubular toggle memberssecured thereto extending downwardly therefrom into the openings in saidcross tie, each of said toggle members having internally threadedportions adjacent the lower end thereof adapted to threadably receive abolt member, a tie plate positioned on each of said wear plates adaptedto support a rail thereon, each of said tie plates having openingsformed therein which register with said toggle members, bolt membersextending downwardly through the openings in said tie plate and beingthreadably received by the threaded portions of said toggle memberswhereby rotation of said bolt members in one direction will cause thetoggle members to expand outwardly into anchoring engagement with thetie, and means for securing the rails to said tie plates.
 2. Thecombination of claim 1 wherein said means securing the rails to said tieplates comprises a pair of hold-down plates positioned on each side ofthe associated rail and means securing each of said hold-down plates tosaid wear plate.
 3. The combination of claim 2 wherein said meanssecuring each of said hold-down plates to said wear plate comprises boltmembers extending downwardly throughout said hold-down plate, tie plateand into said toggle members.
 4. In combination,an elongated,substantially horizontally disposed wood cross tie having opposite ends,a horizontally disposed wear plate mounted on the upper surface of saidcross tie adjacent each end thereof, each of said wear plates beingbonded to the tie by means of a plurality of spaced-apart teethextending downwardly therefrom which are embedded in the tie, said teethbeing positioned uniformly across substantially the entire underside ofsaid wear plate, and being great enough in number so as to require atleast about 25,000 pounds of force to bond the wear plate to the tie,said cross tie having a plurality of vertically disposed openings formedtherein beneath each of said wear plates, each of said wear plateshaving a plurality of tubular members secured thereto extendingdownwardly therefrom into the openings in said tie, means securing saidtubular members to said tie, a tie plate positioned on each of said wearplates adapted to support a rail thereon, each of said tie plates havingopenings formed therein which register with tubular members, meanssecuring the rails to said tie plates, and means securing said tieplates to said tubular members.
 5. The combination of claim 1, whereinsaid wear plate includes at least about 360 teeth.
 6. The combination ofclaim 4, wherein said wear plate includes at least about 360 teeth.